


Admiration at Aquatica

by MegumitheGreat



Series: Swimmers at Water Parks can be Entertaining! [4]
Category: Free!
Genre: Admiration at the park, Aquatica, Attempt at Humor, Attempt at Suspense, Crack, Iwatobi, M/M, One Shot, Samezuka, based on my experiences, feel good, one shot series, water parks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 15:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10833867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: Samezuka and Iwatobi's swim teams have a rare opportunity to go to Orlando and visit some of the water parks.  This part focuses on the bond between our graceful dolphin and orca mom.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InThoseStarrySkies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InThoseStarrySkies/gifts).



> The friend I've gone to other water parks is moving on with her life and going out into the real world, so another close friend and I went to Aquatica for the first time yesterday! This story is based on our experience while still trying to keep true to the characters' personalities. (I spent five hours writing this, and this part gets a special crack ending under a Chapter 2).
> 
> EDIT: I went back and added a couple things after my friend told me I'd forgotten a couple things. And when I did, the story got a lot more feelsy.

While Nagisa and Rei decided that they were going to Wet ‘n’ Wild, Makoto and Haruka—or rather, Haruka only—made the decision to go to the one water park that was themed on aquatic animals: Aquatica.

Riding the shuttle from their hotel, Makoto and Haruka looked at a map of the park on their phone. The place was huge; everything looked so attractive, but the one thing that caught Haruka’s eye was Roa’s Rapids.

“Makoto, we’re going there,” he stated as he pointed at it with a deadpan expression.

“We’ll be there all day, but do you want to go there first?” Makoo asked him.

“Yes.”

So when the shuttle arrived at the park and they scanned their ticket through the gate, Haruka tried to make a beeline for the rapids. While Haruka already had his swimsuit on under his clothes, Makoto had all of their items to put into the locker including their clothes. They had to put them away before going anywhere, and Haruka realized that Florida sun wasn’t like Iwatobi sun; it was more brutal. Makoto didn’t mind getting a little sunburnt, mostly because putting on sunscreen was a hassle. He liked being outside, and getting tanned and burnt was just part of it.

“Makoto, sunscreen is important,” Haruka scolded. “If you get sunburnt, you’re going to be in pain on the way back home, which is a _long_ flight.”

“But sunscreen gets sticky and slippery and it takes time to put on,” Makoto whined. “Besides, I don’t even burn that much.”

“Makoto, sunscreen.”

The backstroke swimmer pouted, but if he didn’t do it, then Haruka would have complained the whole day and worried himself to death. He took some of his best friend’s sunscreen, slathering it on his arms and chest and abdomen. As he put some on his face—the worst part—he turned away from Haruka and asked over his shoulder:

“Can you put some on my back?”

Haruka agreed before asking for the same. He poured the sunscreen into his palm, but a miscalculation in how much it would spread with it all in his hand caused a massive dollop to end up at the small of his muscular back.

“Damn…let me scoop up all that back—wait, no…”

Makoto gave him a sly smile. “All that back, hmm?” he teased.

“I-I mean…I put it all at one spot. D-Don’t laugh at me.”

“Whatever you say, Haru.”

After Haruka had finished spreading the cream on his friend’s back, he waited for the same. He couldn’t deny that Makoto was much better at spreading the sunscreen; it felt like a luxurious massage, and had Haruka not fallen asleep so early last night, he was sure he would have passed out right there.

“Alright, we’re done. Shall we get to the rapids?” Makoto asked him.

Haruka grabbed his wrist, and he led him to the rapids as calmly as he could to avoid looking like the hydrophilic foreigner he was. It was incredibly difficult for him to keep himself under control with so much water everywhere. Part of him want to faint, but another knew that if he did, he’d have to go to the infirmary and thus wouldn’t be allowed to go into the water after some hours.

It wasn’t long before they came to the opening to the rapids. It was still early—the park had just opened for the day—so there wasn’t much people in the rapids yet. He could enjoy himself. But he had to wait for the sunscreen to soak into his skin. Why did he have to insist on the sunscreen?!

“You’re not going?” Makoto asked him.

“I want to, but the sunscreen…” Haruka almost sadly mumbled.

“It’ll be fine! Just go.”

Haruka was still uncharacteristically hesitant, so Makoto did what he was best at—manipulating his dear dolphin friend into doing what he wanted for water. He waltzed around him, slowly walking into the clear pool water. After he was in far enough that the water was swishing just over his ankles, he watched him run as fast as he could into the somewhat raging waters. Glad that he was happy, he followed him.

The current at the beginning of the rapids wasn’t too strong, and Makoto was allowed to calmly float while Haruka was tempted to swim as fast as he could underwater.

The first fork in the rapids was where the waters were rougher with enough pressure that could propel them and effectively make them skate through the ripples of the clear water. Of course, Haruka was going to speed right through them, so Makoto skated by himself. He was clumsy at first but slowly figured out the best pose to reduce the most friction between his feet and the bottom of the pool. In fact, as he practiced with each current, he no longer looked like a clumsy, star-struck piglet but more like an erotic pork cutlet bowl…or erotic grilled mackerel. After going around half the rapids, Haruka looked behind him at the olive-haired swimmer that was casually being pushed by the current.  
He thought to play a little prank to get back at the back comment.

Haruka stretched out his arms then said, “Swim to me, my love,” just as Makoto had lost his momentum. The request made him blush, but he swam up to him. “Hello, my dear.”

“H-Haru, stop!” Makoto begged as he hid his face.

“That was for the back comment.”

Haruka turned around and started swimming again, this time with Makoto trying to keep up with him through the other currents. The freestyle swimmer didn’t know his own speed. Makoto wasn’t a fast swimmer but a dynamic one that used his height to gain the advantage. When it came to swimming against him, however, Makoto couldn’t keep up with Haruka simply because he didn’t know how to pace himself. The currents gave him a boost, but it gave the other man one as well.

After a few more laps around the rapids, Makoto had an inkling that people were going to be flooding the park soon. He beckoned his friend out of the rapids, and while Haruka was particularly upset about that, he complied. After all, the whole place was a pool, so he was going to swim either way.

They left the rapids and found a map. The first ride that call them was the Dolphin Plunge, a body slide that cleared through a tank of Commerson dolphins, in which the animals swam upside down for fun and even see better.

Climbing the stairs to the top of the slide, Makoto felt somewhat nervous. Between the height of the slide and going through the tank, he was a little scared that he would get stuck due to his physique. Haruka was much slenderer than him; he wouldn’t get stuck!

They finally arrived at the top, and while the lifeguard at the top was thoroughly impressed of their muscles, she made sure both of them were ready to go.

“See you at the bottom,” Haruka told Makoto as he launched himself down the slide.

Makoto gulped, sliding down with his eyes tightly shut because inside the slide was dark and he was going so fast that he didn’t want to see the water come rushing up to meet him. Haruka was there waiting for him at the bottom when he opened his eyes again.

“Ah, I didn’t get to see the dolphins…” Makoto dejectedly said.

“We can come back to see them.”

“Okay.”

The next ride was a short walk away. It was called Tassie’s Twisters, two slides that looked like two giant cyclones that emptied into another smaller lazy river. Since they weren’t terribly experienced in English, with Makoto being worse than Haruka, it was only natural that they couldn’t read the signs around the park.

“How do we get on that ride?” Haruka asked.

“Maybe around this way?” Makoto guessed.

They walked around the Loggerhead Lane lazy river to where they found rafts sitting out. It was a two-person ride, so why not take one of the rafts?

“Guys, guys!” a lifeguard from the lazy river called. “You can’t take those. You have to go through the river.”

Thanks to Rin taking him to Australia, Haruka had a basic understanding of English. “We don’t go here?” he asked in broken English.

“No, you gotta go through the river. You guys are good, almost made it past me!”

Haruka took Makoto’s wrist, leading him into the lazy river, but when they got around the bend in front of the lifeguard again, they had to stop.

“Y-You guys, you need to have a tube! Here comes one—wait, no, someone took it. Oh, here’s another—that one’s gone, too. Just wait, I’ll tell you when one is coming. Here’s one.”

Mildly confused, Makoto and Haruka grabbed a light blue raft for the two of them, riding the river to the entrance to the attraction; however, when they started to carry the raft out, another lifeguard told them they needed a yellow one. Haruka was slowly becoming irritated because all he wanted to do was to get on the ride. (It was only until later that they were able to figure out that the sign at the opening of the lazy river had stated all what they got in trouble for.)

Tassie’s Twister was a little taller than Dolphin Plunge, thus Makoto was a little more nervous about it. He carried the raft, which both made him feel safe and not safe because on one hand, it would cushion him if he were to fall, but on the other hand, it was heavier than it looked.

“Makoto, let me carry it,” Haruka told him.

“Are you sure?” he asked him.

The raven-haired swimmer took the raft without another word. They waited in line, observing the park entrance and the retention pond on the other side of the road. Makoto watched his friend then realized that this ride was different.

“How do we ride this one?” he asked.

“It looks like we both sit on the raft, and the taller person sits in the back,” Haruka explained.

“Maybe we should go ahead and get in order so that way we’re ready?”

“Sure, but I doubt it’ll make a difference.”

At the top of the ride, Makoto held the raft in place as Haruka got in position. Makoto sat behind him, his feet tucked under his arms. The lifeguard pushed them off, and down they went through the darkness of the slide until they came to the toilet bowl part that slingshot them around the side. Makoto tightened his grip on the raft handles while Haruka was forced to lean slightly farther back due to the speed and centripetal force that sent them down the center of the slide and shortly to the end pool where they released their raft back into the river.

“There was another slide,” Haruka realized. He grabbed another raft and they took it back to the top. “We’re going down the blue one now.”

“O-Okay…” Makoto quietly said.

“M-Makoto, are you scared?” Haruka’s voice sounded concerned.

“No…just a little dizzy from the green slide. Let’s go again!”

“If you don’t want to—”

“I’m fine, Haru, because you’re with me. As well as a bunch of lifeguards!”

They went down the blue side, and strangely this side had more speed. It flung them higher up on the sides, and they were slightly disoriented as they kept going around and around the inside of the bowl before a bee managed to find its way inside and hovered over Haruka’s stomach as they slowed. Panicking from the bee, they pulled themselves toward the center, but they went backwards, causing Makoto to scream so loud that Haruka was surprised that he could muster that volume.

“That one was faster!” Makoto gasped.

“I’m sorry…”

“Haru, it was fun!”

Makoto was staring at him like a child with sparkling eyes. Assuming this to be a sign that he wanted to go on more rides, Haruka led him down the path to another set of rides.  
Two of the slides—Hooroo Run and Walhalla Wave—shared a hub, and thankfully they didn’t have to carry the raft. These rides were family rides, or at the very least three-person raft rides. Hooroo Run was a straight slide with bumps, and Walhalla Wave had bends and twists.

They went on Hooroo Run first, reaching the top and sitting down across from each other in the raft. Haruka asked to go down backwards after Makoto showed some hesitation about going down.

As they descended, Makoto wasn’t as scared. In fact, they were ready to be disappointed that the straight slide didn’t have any quirks…until the last drop where Haruka heard his neck crack as it hyperextended thanks to the force of gravity. The ride ended in laughter albeit the dolphin swimmer was in slight pain. Makoto was laughing so hard that when he tried to get out of the raft, he slipped back into it, utterly making a giddy fool of himself.

The pain in Haruka’s neck didn’t stop them from going back to the top and riding Walhalla Wave down. This one started off with the lifeguard spinning the raft, and Makoto wasn’t too thrilled with it, and as they went down, he hoped he wouldn’t end up backwards. Once again, Haruka was the chosen one, but thankfully the ride didn’t end in a neck-breaking drop.

At this point, Makoto suggested that they rehydrated themselves, but Haruka refused simply because they were already swimming. “Just because you’re in water doesn’t mean you don’t have to drink water!” he scolded. “W-Where are you going?!”

Haruka didn’t spare any time. He pulled Makoto towards Taumata Racers, a toboggan race down winding steep slides. It was something that Makoto wasn’t going to agree to easily, but when was the next time they were going to be there? Better to face his fears than to live in regret.

But when they got up there and saw that the slide was actually terrifyingly steep, both were struck with some nervousness because at the very beginning was a tight turn around the slide before going down.

“H-Haru…” Makoto whimpered.

“See you at the bottom,” Haruka replied, steeling himself for the ride.

“Oh God, please don’t leave me!”

Haruka slid down at the mark, but Makoto got stuck at the beginning. He shimmied himself until he finally went down, and if the other rides didn’t make his life flash before his eyes, this one certainly did. As he went down the slope, he tightened his grip on the toboggan handles before stopping farther back from the other racers; Haruka was waiting for him at the toboggan return.

“I’m good if we never do that one again,” Makoto sighed.

The sun was starting to make the ground somewhat hot, but it didn’t stop Haruka from bringing Makoto to the last pair of slides (with the exception of the only trapdoor slide that neither of them wanted to try). The two-person slide was Whanau Way and the single rider one was Omaka Rocka.

For the sake of Makoto’s sanity, Haruka agreed to go on Whanau Way first, picking up a raft from a lifeguard at the bottom and taking to the top. Makoto felt a little guilty since Omaka Rocka had some very scary yet attractive funnels. Haruka, on the other hand, was happy either way; however, there was one thing that did help Makoto feel better about the ride—as he climbed the stairs behind Haruka, he had a perfect view of Haruka’s butt.

Whanau Way had four different paths to take, two of them being not as fast as the other two. Haruka decided to go on one of the slower ones, and the swimmers assumed their riding positions on the raft. When they were cleared, they slid down through a large turn before skipping on the top of the end pool. He dragged Makoto to the pool for Omaka Rocka, grabbing a raft for himself and then handing one to Makoto.

“I have to go on this one alone, huh?” Makoto sighed.

“It won’t be bad,” Haruka told him softly. “Is it too much?”

“N-No, just…this is the first one where we have separate tubes. The Dolphin Plunge wasn’t so bad, but…I feel better when you’re with me…”

“We can go at the same time, so we’ll end up at the bottom together.”

Makoto knew there was no other way, and he didn’t want to make Haruka go alone. He swallowed his apprehension, following the same path as Whanau Way up to the first landing where the line for Omaka Rocka was.

When it was their turn, Haruka rested a hand on Makoto’s shoulder before getting ready to slide down. They shoved themselves off at the same time, and contrary to what Makoto believed about the ride, it wasn’t as intense as it was amazing from the inside. The funnels were spacious, and even though he was swishing up the sides in a half-pipe, it was actually quite comforting. He didn’t appreciate that the first funnel had turned him around so that he was going down backwards, but the second one turned him again so he faced forward. When he ended up in the end pool, he scanned the area for Haruka.

“Makoto!” Haruka’s voice called. There he was at the end of the other slide waiting for him. After they returned the tubes, he stopped him. “How was it?”

“It wasn’t so bad. I liked it.”

Haruka smiled at him in such a way that Makoto felt completely better. With all the slides they wanted to do done, they decided that it would be a good idea to relax a little in the Loggerhead Lane lazy river. They found a raft for themselves, popping up through the holes in it and Haruka guided it to a small grotto where there was a fish tank. As if the tank were calling him, he swam over, where he watched them with idle fascination. Makoto watched as well, glad to have a break and happy to know that his friend was enjoying himself.

“Oh, Haru, do you want to try the wave pool? It’s supposed to be an ocean simulation thing,” Makoto mentioned.

Hearing this, Haruka swam at break-neck speed to the exit of the lazy river. Despite Makoto being near catatonic by the time they had arrived, he dragged him quickly to Cutback Cove. Waves were coursing through the water, and he headed straight end. Immediately, Makoto felt his heart race.

“H-Haru…” he quietly said.

The pool wasn’t deep considering how tall they were, but the farther they went in and the higher and stronger the waves got, memories from the past were resurfacing in Makoto’s brain. Haruka eventually let go, no longer standing to carry his friend deeper since his body ached for the power and wetness of the waves. It was a swimming pool with lifeguards. He would be okay, wouldn’t he be?

The waves grew, pushing Makoto back faster than he could recover his stance. They kept crashing over his head, and with the chlorine in the pool irritating his eyes, he became disoriented. Every time he tried to gasp for air, another wave crashed over him.

The dolphin swimmer had gone farther into the water, bobbing in the waves and enjoying their power. He had only glanced back once when Makoto was still standing, but after a couple more jumps over the waves and a dive into the water, he turned out to an empty space where he used to be. The familiar olive hair and peridot eyes were nowhere to be found, and a feeling of dread bubbled inside of his stomach. The waves made it difficult to swim to where he had been, and the anxiety and fear made him feel slower, heavier in the water. Where was he?

“Makoto?” Haruka called out. As he breached through the waves, he found him struggling to fight against the waves still some distance in front of him. “Makoto!”

He swam back to him, using the force of the waves to give him a burst of speed. He grabbed his arm, guiding him back to the shallow shore where Makoto coughed up the water that he had accidentally sucked in.

“Makoto, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!” Haruka panicked.

“I’m fine…” Makoto rasped. “I wasn’t expecting…it to be like this…”

“I’m really sorry, Makoto.”

“It’s okay, really. I’m sorry for being careless and scaring you.”

“It’s not your fault. Hold my hand. If we go up to where they start, they won’t be as strong.”

Haruka led Makoto over to the deep end of the wave pool. Makoto was still able to stand albeit barely, and he felt a little better being with him instead of by himself surrounded by strangers. He was told that if he started to feel tired that he could lean on him for support, but he didn’t want to burden his friend. The orca-loving swimmer glanced at the wave timer, heading back to the shallow end and preparing to withstand the waves now that he knew what to expect.

The first waves weren’t so bad, and he was able to develop his iron stance against them. But again, the waves were getting stronger and higher and coming from different directions. He had timed himself to jump with the waves, but he stopped thinking, and before he knew it, he was jumping into the waves instead of over them. It only took one large wave to pull him under again, but this time Haruka wasn’t there to help him. Makoto turned away from the waves, still being bludgeoned by them. He used the force from them to push him up the shore, where he coughed up the water again.

Haruka swam back to him, still scared that he was reeling from the near-drowning. When Makoto told him how he had almost drowned again due to carelessness, he grabbed his hand and squeezed. He didn’t want to lose him, and definitely not at a water park.

“Haru, why don’t we get something to eat?” Makoto asked as if trying to distract him from the incident.

***

“I didn’t think they would give us a kids’ meal,” Makoto giggled.

“It’s not grilled mackerel,” Haruka pouted.

“But it’s something. Oh, make sure to—you didn’t get any water?”

“I’m not thirsty because I’m constantly in a pool.”

“Haru, you need to drink water!”

“You need to put on more sunscreen!”

“I will when you drink water!”

“I don’t need it! Besides, water is expensive here!”

“And putting on sunscreen is time-consuming! Anyway, the park closes in about two hours. What do you want to do?”

“We could ride the tube rides again and then go back to the rapids…or just go to the rapids.”

“I want to ride the rides with you again. Can we do them?”

Still feeling guilty about the wave pool incident, Haruka granted him his wish. After finishing the chicken tenders and fries and fruits they had gotten, they rode the rides all again then headed for Roa’s Rapids.

Makoto timed it once the park announced that it would be closing in an hour. The two of them headed in with Makoto skating through the rapids again and Haruka was dolphin-kicking underwater. Once or twice, the backstroke swimmer was swept away, and while he wasn’t as terrified as he was in the wave pool, he didn’t appreciate the lack of control as he went with the current. Of course, Haruka was close by, pulling him out of the jets’ currents and out to the sides where he was safer.

At the same time, the dolphin-kicking swimmer again forgot that he was faster than Makoto and most of the patrons in the rapids. So while his friend did his best not to get swept away with the current after being pulled out, Haruka left him in the bubbles and splashes of his trail.

He finally broke the surface looking around to find Makoto, except he couldn’t find him anywhere. His heart stopped, his mind filled with anxiety that he had left him to drown again. He couldn’t swim against the current to find him either.

“Makoto?” Haruka called out. “Where did you go?”

He didn’t hear him, and his worst fear was slowly coming true. He didn’t want to be in a foreign country by himself.

“Makoto!”

Two fingers poked his sides, making him leap into the air. There was Makoto, smiling at him like he was flattered that he was worried about him.

“Don’t disappear like that!”

“You should slow down then. Do we want to ride Hooroo Run a couple more times before the park closes? There’s almost no line.”

Haruka agreed, but this time he clung to Makoto’s arm so he didn’t just vanish again. Makoto was right about the nonexistent line, and when they were seated in the raft, Haruka asked if he wanted to go down backwards. Part of the peridot-eyed swimmer didn’t want to risk breaking his neck like Haruka did earlier, but he wanted to be fair.

“We’re going down sideways,” Haruka decided. It was an odd request, but it worked out.

“No. No, no. No, no, no,” Makoto murmured. As they went down, Haruka caught a glimpse of the sheer terror on Makoto’s face, and when they hit the bottom, he couldn’t help but laugh so hard that he couldn’t get out of the raft without falling back in. “D-Don’t laugh, Haru!”

“You should have seen the look on your face! It was too funny! Let’s go again! I want to see your face like that again!”

Makoto felt his heart sink, but he wanted him to enjoy himself. He bit the bullet, climbing the tower again to the top of the slide and sitting the raft. For the last time, they hit the bottom with their necks almost breaking at the bottom.

Haruka and Makoto headed to the locker rooms to change, and when they were done, they decided to watch the Commerson dolphins until the park closed. They were fascinating, swimming on their backs like the people that went through the slide in the tank. Makoto watched Haruka, happy that they were able to spend the day together.

“Makoto, let’s take a picture with them,” Haruka said. He pulled out his phone, taking a selfie as soon as one of the dolphins showed up behind them. “Thank you for today, Makoto. I really enjoyed it.”

Makoto gave him his sweetest smile. Together, they headed to the gates where they caught a shuttle to take them back to their hotel. When they returned to their room, Nagisa and Rei had just gotten back with souvenirs. Everyone was a little burnt, but that was the least of their problems. They had to get sleep to catch their flight the next day.


	2. Crack Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My friend knew that I would be using the trip as research, so she requested this ending after she almost flew forward down Hooroo Run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crack ending, so why not finish the series with this? InThoseStarrySkies recommends you read this while listening to Careless Whisper by George Michael.

As their raft hit the bottom, Haruka lost his grip on the handles. What felt like the world moving in slow motion, he was flung forward, and Makoto caught him by the shoulders. Their noses brushed against each other, eyes wide open from the shock, and warm breaths between them.

“H-Haru…?” Makoto quietly said.

“Please get off the raft,” the lifeguard said.

Makoto and Haruka, shaken, did as they were told and walked out of the end pool. What had just happened?

“Haru—”

“Let’s…not mention this to Nagisa and Rei,” he replied stiffly.

“I wasn’t planning to, but are you okay?”

Haruka didn’t look at him. He simply uttered, “Yeah. I’m okay. I think.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "This slide is straighter than Haru." ~InThoseStarrySkies, 2017
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this series! I'll probably have similar ones coming up!

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, I legitimately almost drowned twice, and we recreated Makoto's near drowning from episode 6 by accident. Wave pools are scary man.


End file.
